Can we finally put Reel to Reel out of its misery? Put it to rest people.

Yes, R2R is inconvenient, expensive to maintain and repair, expensive to get high quality pre-recorded tape, expensive to buy blank tapes, etc., but, there is a reason for it sticking around--it offers superb sound.  The OP seems to favor cassette and elcaset as better options.  Really?  The only benefit to either is convenience and portability, and on those fronts, digital machines are vastly superior and sound better too.  If any medium should be "put out of its misery" it would be the cassette (elcaset was stillborn so it needs no euthanasia).

I've had pro console machines from Ampex to Crown to Otari, and home machines from Teac, Tascom, and Revox.  Tape is a wonderful sounding medium.  Even  on my auto-reverse home Teac 4070, the  commercial release of the Verdi Requiem on Columbia (Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, Westminiter Choir, Maureen Forrester, Richard Tucker) sounds better than the same recording on SACD, and that in turn sounds better than the CD version.

8 track for me is a non-starter just because program material is often interrupted. And when I did have an 8 track player I didn't think it sounded that good...

...and then there is the fact that tape press-back mechanism inside the tapes can be a problem. Either a piece of metal with felt on it or the worst is the foam-based resistance provider. The foam just turns to tar eventually...

Cassettes are fine. I grew up with them. They sound alrightish. I remember realizing as a kid that tapes made from vinyl always sounded better than tapes made from CD.

Really Larry?
Your post is as inane as the original OP.
Can you expound on why, in your opinion of course, cassette should be " put out of its misery"?

I never realized it was in pain and suffering tbh but hey I am all ears ( sic).

I’m generalizing but - at least for me - cassettes sound rich, natural, dynamic, sweet, have more sparkle and presence compared directly to their CD counterparts, which sound thin, compressed, synthetic, bland and uninteresting. Cassettes are portable, too! Is the world deaf?